Another Day, Another ceiling

Having now moved up a floor the boys started work on taking out another ceiling. Again all wattle and daub so plenty of dust as it comes down! This part of the chateau is where there were quite a few leaks in the roof before the last owner completely re roofed it. Having uncovered the beams we found another one the is in a very bad way. You can see that it has had water dripping onto it for many years. However it is quite an easy job to replace these beams and we do have a  

fair amount of old oak beams lying around in the chateau so hopefully we can replace like with like. We are really moving forward at a great pace. All of the rooms that we are renovating on the ground floor are now totally stripped of fittings and fixtures. All that we have left to do is get most of the old lime plaster off the walls. In the main we will be returning the walls back to their original stone

finish - much more in keeping and also better on the eye! We have had a bit of rain this week so it has not been possible to get out into the gardens. But today in the afternoon we spent an hour or so clearing the weeds and long grass in the farmyard area. The guys plan to keep chickens in here so we have a good supply of fresh eggs. Also we will start a vegetable garden in here. A bit late but for sure we can still produce a lot this summer and will have it all prepared for next summer.